1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to animal identification devices and more particularly to a new and improved ear tag assembly comprising a rivet, a novel flexible base having rib-like reinforcement ramps, an animal ear tag and an applicator tool.
2. Related Disclosures
One, two or three-piece animal ear tags are known and have been used for considerable time to identify animals (U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,563) in particular life-stock (U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,781 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,455, among others) by various means of identification devices, to deliver various chemicals or therapeutic agents (U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,064), to allow attachment of electronic identification means (U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,374) or even as an animal jewelry.
While the ease of attachment or mounting to the animal ear varies with various designs, an overall problem remains unsolved when, in particular in two-piece tag, the pin attaching the identification tag through the ear is and must be made of hard material. The base of the pin, which by necessity comes into repeated contact with the animal ear during the movement of the animal's head or ear remains rigid and with time irritates the place where the base is mounted and consequently causes the skin irritations, bleeding or infections. Moreover, the hard base of the pin tends to get caught or comes in continued contact with vires, fences, staunchion bars, pipes, branches and such other obstacles and, such base of the pin being inflexible, is being pulled, when caught, and may pull with it the pin and the tag, which may break and get lost or serious injuries and/or loss of the identification tag may be caused by the pulling out the pin through the ear.
Another problem generally associated with two-piece tag is the possibility of tampering.
Thus, it would be extremely valuable to have an identification ear tag assembly which would be easily attachable to the animal but which at the same time would have some means to prevent or minimize injuries to the animal's ear and surrounding tissue caused by movement and rubbing of the ear by the hard base of the pin or, in the event the base is caught and animal attempts to free itself, by the animal's tearing its ear or loosing the tag. It would also be very valuable to have a assembly which would be tamper-evident.
The above listed disadvantages have been recognized and attempts were made to provide a tag or system which would avoid or alleviate these problems.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,924 describes a tag which can be lockingly abutted to the rear portion of the flanged impaler made of two materials; hard material is used for the impaler tip which is then embedded in the softer material used for the rest of impaler. While the impaler of this invention may somehow reduce the irritation of the ear by being made of the soft polyurethane, nevertheless its base has generally a predetermined, nonflexible, unmovable and unchangeable shape and thus rubs against the animal's ear all the time at the same place. That place then becomes sensitive, sore and rush and irritation or infection may consequently develop.
Another disadvantage of the patented tag is that the impaler must be made of two materials which makes its manufacturing and production more complicated, laborious and costly. Furthermore, the hard impaler tip may become dislocated from the soft material prior or during ear tag application.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,117 describes another attempt to deal with a possible injury of the animal ear. It describes a tag having a stud for piercing the ear of an animal which stud has a slightly tapered or straight hollow shaft with an ear-piercing conical tip on one end of the shaft and a set of three retaining flanges which extend radially on the other end. The whole shaft, including flanges, are made of hard but resilient material. Attached to the back of the flanges is an annular flexible disk made of a flexible material which, when attached to the wing-like flanges acts as a muscle flexor and assists in pulling the flanges back after they have been snagged. The flanges and flexible disk are in rigid position and cannot move along the shaft; their flexibility being of any use only in cases when the flanges get caught in some obstacle, when they bend, and hopefully get released. However, due to the resiliency of their hard material composition, these flanges lack the flexibility to return to the starting position on their own. Thus, the flanges will return to their original position only by means of the flexible disk. Thus, there is a great impracticability in manufacture of the two-pieces two-materials studs with flanges depending on the properly functioning flexible disk.
Another attempt to prevent injury and infection of the animal's ear is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,119 which describes an ear tag with a plurality of passageways made on the surface of the tag to permit flow of the outside air to the area of the ear perforation made during the tag insertion. This system has a pin with rigid affixed base embedded in the soft polyurethane material to make the contact of the base with the ear softer.
The pin is made of two materials and provides essentially no flexibility when the tag is caught in some obstacle. The base embedded in the polyurethane is not flexible and thus it is the function of the polyurethane to soften the impact of the rubbing the base over the surface of the ear. For that purpose, the perforations are made in the same area on the tag to allow the air circulation and healing of the wound or preventing the infection from the rubbing of the pin in the ear perforation. The primary disadvantage os this patent is that the manufacturing of the pin made of the two materials is more expensive and laborious than the manufacture of two separate pieces made of different materials.
Thus it would be greatly advantageous to have an identification tag assembly which would be comfortable for the animal to wear, which would be easy to apply to the animal's ear, and at the same time relatively inexpensive and easy to manufacture. It would be also desirable for the assembly to have a means allowing easy release of the tag from the obstacle without at the same time loosing or destroying the tag, injuring the animal or permitting undetected tampering.
The current invention provides the identification tag assembly which has all above listed advantages. It is easy and cheap to manufacture and easy to apply it quickly to the animal's ear. It is safe and comfortable to wear, and still allows an animal to get released from the accidental engagement with branches, fences, pipes, stanchions, vires or other obstructions and hindrances. In certain embodiments, a tampering is easily detectable and evident.